“Ha!” Ryan stood. “Hut pulled her right into the middle of it last night. You think he’s just gonna let her walk away? Damn, Brody. The sick bastard wants her.”
My blood pressure was close to boiling point, and I could practically hear the screaming whistle of a kettle telling me I was ready and to remove me before I boiled over completely. “I fuckin' know!” I stood so fast that my chair skidded across the floor.
“Jesus Christ,” Jord moaned and let his head drop back. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Kyle glanced at Jord and then me, seeming to take a second and then his eyes widened. “Fuck, Brody, what were you thinking?”
“He clearly wasn’t,” Ryan chimed in.
“Shut your fuckin' mouths,” I sneered, needing them to stop talking, I had enough going on with trying to take down Hut and plan to keep Lola safe, I didn’t need them to—
“What about—”
“Don’t,” I warned, pointing a finger at Jord to drive my point home. “I know what you’re going to say, so don’t waste your breath.”
“See, that just makes it even worse.” He stood, matching me in height. “You’re in this case too deep, and you goddamn know it.”
He was right, but there was nothing we could do about it. It didn’t end just because they thought it should. A conclusion wasn’t drawn until Hut was behind bars. “You know that don’t mean shit,” I sighed, already feeling like I was losing. “I couldn’t fuckin' stop myself.”
“She has a nice ass, but—”
I was over to Ryan in a second flat, my hand curling around his shirt as I yanked him forward. “Say one more fuckin' word about her. One. Just one.”
His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed audibly. “Shit, Brody, I was just playin'.”
“Well, don’t.” I let him go, spun around, and paced along the threadbare carpet with my hands on my head. “I don’t know what the hell is happening.”
The words were true. I had no idea what was going on. The only thing I knew for sure was the way Lola’s smile had my heart racing. The anger that flowed through me at the thought of her getting hurt. And the sadness that enveloped me when I thought about this op being over. It wasn’t normal to feel like your world was crashing down around you when you thought about not being able to see someone, but that was what was happening.
“You need to get out, or tell her you’re done,” Jord said, his voice softer now.
“I know.” I let my arms drop at my sides as a breath rushed out of me. “I know.”
“Get her to turn on him. Use what you can. The sooner you do, the sooner we can all go fuckin’ home.”
He was right, I knew he was, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
Chapter Fifteen
BRODY
The guys were right. I either had to turn Lola or get out. Getting out wasn’t an option, but I wasn’t sure what it would do to Lola and me if I confessed who I really was. I didn’t know the reaction I would get, and just the thought of her walking away from me had my chest burning with pain.
So here I was, pulling up outside Hut’s house at six in the morning to sneak Lola out. She had no idea what I had planned for today, but she needed one day just as bad as I did.
A day where the crew didn’t surround us.
A day where we weren’t wondering when the next shitstorm was about to hit.
A day where we could just be us.
I ambled over to the house and pushed through the door, silence greeting me. Hut hadn’t had many parties, not since he found out someone was skimming his product. He’d gone on lockdown, and that made way for me to achieve what I wanted to. To get closer to them without the buffer of partygoers between us.
The stairs creaked underfoot, and my stomach churned with nerves. If Hut caught me walking up these stairs, it wouldn’t mean anything good, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I needed a day with Lola. Just Lola.
No noise came from Hut’s bedroom, so I continued past it and knocked lightly on Lola’s door. After several seconds and no answer, I knocked again, hearing a groan resound out.
“What?”
“Lola,” I whispered, my voice entirely too loud in the small space. “It’s me.”
A bang echoed from her room, followed by a click, and then her door was springing open. “What are you doing?” she whisper-shouted, her eyes wide and hair a wild mess.
I grinned and leaned against the doorframe. “Mornin' to you too.”
Her cheeks flushed, and goddamn if it wasn’t the sexiest thing about her right then. “Brody,” she tried to warn, but her voice was breathy. “What are you doin'?”
“Taking you on an adventure.” I sounded like a little boy who was about to ride his bike through the woods for the first time. “Get dressed, and let’s go.”
“Go where?” she asked, a small smile on her lips.
I pushed up off the doorframe, pressed the tip of my pointer finger to the end of her nose, and said, “It’s a surprise.”
She worried her bottom lip and stepped back. “What should I wear?”
“Anything you’re comfortable in.” I wanted to tell her that she could wear nothing at all, but being out in public like that wouldn’t go down well. Plus, I didn’t want anyone else seeing parts of her only I got to touch.
My chest heaved on a breath, and I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “I’m gonna wait in the car. Be quick—it’s gonna take us a couple of hours to get there.”
She yawned and nodded, but I needed to get out of here. The allure to step inside her room and touch every inch of her exposed skin was becoming stronger the longer I stood there. I walked away, trying to be as quiet as I was when I came up here, and made it back to my car without disturbing Hut.
Fifteen minutes later, Lola came running out of her house, a grin spread on her face as she yanked the passenger door open and dived inside. “Let’s go!”
She didn’t have to tell me twice.
I turned the engine on and pulled out onto the road.
I hadn’t planned to take her to this place. I hadn’t planned to do any of this. I’d woken up an hour ago and craved to have time just the two of us. Things were getting more muddled as time went on, and I needed something that we could both remember. I needed her to have a piece of me that no one else did. Something she could remember and know without a doubt I felt things for her—things a man like me shouldn’t feel about a woman like her.
“You ever going to tell me where we’re going?” she asked, her excitement a living thing next to me.
“It’s…” I cleared my throat and gripped the steering wheel, taking the turn for the highway. “It’s somewhere I’ve never taken anyone else.”
“Really?”
The awe in her voice had my chest puffing out and my hands loosening. “Really.” I glanced at her briefly and sent her a wink. “There’s so much shit going down with Hut and…yeah…” I trailed off. That could have been my chance. I could have told her who I was and what I wanted to do, but the thought of seeing devastation on her face wasn’t worth it. I couldn’t hurt her, not like that. My head told me to do my job and turn her against Hut, but my heart and soul told me nothing mattered but the way I felt when she was around.
“Tell me about it,” she groaned, pulling her legs up on the seat. “I have so much stress at the moment. If it’s not Hut, then it’s college or working doubles at the diner. You’re the…” She hesitated, and my hand automatically reached out, encompassing hers. “You’re the only good thing I have right now. It feels…right when I’m with you.”
I nodded, knowing what she meant even if neither of us could explain it properly. I craved to tell her I felt the same, but opening up to her wasn’t easy, not when I was falling. I was drifting farther and farther away from the man who I’d tried to become. I was free-falling, nothing able to stop the descent.
The soft thrum of the radio filled the silence, but it was a silence that was natural, something that always happened with Lo
la. Neither of us needed to fill the space with endless chatter. We were happy just…being. Being in each other’s company, being near each other, touching each other.
I leaned back in the seat, getting comfortable, and heading to the one place I swore I would never take anyone. Yet, I was here, heading toward it.
But not for a second did I doubt it.
The two-hour drive went by quickly, and then we were pulling up into the sleepy little town that some of my best memories were made at. I drove up the gravel driveway, the overgrown trees not letting much morning light through the branches, and finally pulled up outside a house I hadn’t been to in over twenty years. The breath whooshed out of my body, and my hands started to shake.
“Oh my god,” Lola gasped and jumped out of the car, her wide eyes taking everything in. She could see the one-story home with white siding and teal trim without remembering helping to paint it. She could look at the wraparound porch that needed a clean without seeing my pop sitting in his chair, reading the morning paper with a smile on his face because my gran was sitting next to him.
“It’s beautiful.”
I pushed out of the car, ambled over to her, and wrapped my arms around her from behind. “This is—was—my grandparents’ house.” A lump was forming in my throat, one that wouldn’t go away anytime soon. I hadn’t been back here since my pop passed away only three months after my gran. Some people said that he died of old age, but I knew he couldn’t survive without my gran. He’d died of a broken heart because she was his everything.
I had no doubt that if they were still around, I wouldn’t be where I was today. But everything happened for a reason, and it had all led me to this moment: my arms wrapped around Lola.
“Was?” she asked, turning in my hold and staring up at me.
“Yeah.” I stared down at her, a sad smile pulling at my lips. “I haven’t been back here since I was fifteen.”
“Why?”
“It’s just”—I squeezed her tighter—“too painful.”
“I get that,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “I haven’t been back to my childhood home. The memories of the happy life I’d been brought into are...you get it.”
I nodded, hating that she had a sheen of tears covering her eyes. “Today was meant to be happy.” I stepped back and grabbed her hand. “Just me and you.” I pulled her around the side of the house and grinned at her gasp. “And the lake.”
“I can’t even…”
“I know.” I understood what she meant because there wasn’t a sight quite like it. It stretched as far as the eye could see with little alcoves of manmade beaches along the small shoreline; only ours had a wooden dock. Pop’s boat had been attached to it when I was a kid, and that was where we spent most of the time when I was here: out on the lake, fishing. Summers were spent paddling in the lake that backed onto the house, laughter and happiness surrounding all of us.
The blue, rippling water was calm, but I was desperate to cause some ripples. To disturb a piece of it that hadn’t been used in so long. I stepped forward, letting Lola’s hand slip from mine and walked to the start of the dock. I shucked my boots off and pulled my socks off my feet. My jacket came off next, and then my T-shirt.
“What are you doing?” Lola asked.
I turned around, seeing her in the same spot I’d left her in, but her eyes were burning a path over my naked chest. I trailed my hand down my stomach, popping the button on my jeans and smirking when she stepped forward from that one movement.
I didn’t answer her as I pulled my jeans off, leaving me in just a pair of boxer briefs. “Making some memories.” I held my hand out for her, and she stumbled the few steps to me. “With you.” I pulled her tank top over her head, leaving her in a dark-red, lacy bra and jeans. “What do you say?”
She stuttered out a breath and stepped back, shucking off her jeans and shoes, revealing the black panties that covered the one part of her I wanted to touch most. “I say...” She stepped closer, but out of my reach as she walked right past me and to the end of the dock. The morning sun hit her, illuminating her glistening skin as she turned her head so she could look at me over her shoulder.
“Catch me.”
LOLA
It had been seven days since the kiss in the kitchen. Four days since Hut dragged me to a meet with Carson. And three days since Brody took me to the lake.
Nothing had changed. Not one thing. Everything was back to normal. The parties. Me working until the middle of the night. Morning classes.
But that wasn’t strictly true because I had changed. I’d stopped thinking of my plan as a wish and started to think of it as my future. I’d started putting things in motion. I’d searched for apartments—not that I had any luck, and I’d sorted through the few things I owned. I didn’t want to pack yet, in case Hut noticed, but I was ready to fling everything into a few trash bags and get the hell out of there.
There was just one thing that stopped me: having a place where I could actually go.
People had been in and out of the house, a constant party seeming to be raging, and not once had I seen Brody. He’d seemed to have disappeared, and if it weren’t for the few messages he’d sent me, I’d have thought he abandoned me. He’d offered his help, and I’d told him I didn’t need it, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t wanted it. Everything would have been so much easier, but I had to do it on my own. I had to prove it to myself more than anyone else.
I stepped out of the train station, my grin taking over my face when I spotted Brody leaning against the wall. His arms were crossed over his chest, one foot on the wall behind him, and his focus was entirely on me.
I had no idea what came over me, but seeing his face awakened a part of me, and I went running. His arms opened at the last minute, catching me against his chest as I squeezed him so tight I was sure he wouldn’t be able to breathe.
“Missed me?” he asked, laughter in his voice.
I pulled back, framing his face with my hands. “Yes.” There was no point in playing hard to get or beating around the bush. I’d missed him more than I cared to admit.
His gaze flicked down to my lips and back to my eyes as his hands gripped my ass. “I missed you too, kid.”
I threw my head back on a laugh, not able to contain it. “I should get down,” I managed to say. “Your back is probably going to break, you know, with you being an old man and all.”
He growled, actually growled. “I’ll show you what an old man can do.”
My skin heated, my pulse going haywire as I bit down on my bottom lip. “Is that a promise?”
“Damn straight it is.” He glanced around. “Let’s get out of here.”
“To where?” I held on tighter as he walked forward, not letting me down. There was something so sexy about him carrying me around. He was a foot taller than me, his large muscled arms gripping me and silently telling me I was safe.
“Well, I originally planned to take you for midnight pancakes, but with all that sass…” He trailed off, raising a brow as he came to a stop next to his car.
“Pancakes, you say?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged as he let me go, keeping my body flush with his as I slid down. “But then you called me an old man.” I snorted, but the grumbling of my stomach interrupted us. Brody looked down, his hand gripping my hip. “Food first.” He nodded to himself. “Let me feed my woman.”
“My god, you sound like a caveman.”
“Me man, you woman.” His grin was electrifying and intoxicating, all in one fell swoop. It wasn’t fair for him to look the way he did and have a personality to go with it.
“Me hungry,” I added, heat spreading over my cheeks as he stared at me. Gone was the fun look and in its place something darker. A war was taking place on his face, and he was letting me witness it.
“How the hell did you get under my skin so quickly?”
I wasn’t sure he wanted an answer, but I gave him one anyway. “I have no idea, but you’re just as far under m
ine.”
He tipped his head to the side and bent his knees so he was closer to my face. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He slowly—oh so slowly—dipped his head and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. I wanted— needed—more, but he was pulling away all too quickly. “Let’s get you fed.”
He pulled the door open behind me and stepped back, waving his arm for me to get into his car. I did as he requested, and he jogged around to the driver’s side. His large hand gripped my thigh as he turned the engine on and maneuvered the car out onto the road.
I ran the tip of my finger over his knuckles, fascinated with the scars there. Each one would no doubt hold a story, and I couldn’t wait for him to tell me them all.
We were seated at a table in the same diner he’d taken me to a few months ago. He held my hand as he sat across from me and placed his legs on each side of mine, surrounding me completely, and I loved it.
We ordered our food and picked up our cups of coffee, an air of peace surrounding us. “How’re the classes going?”
“Good.” I placed my cup down and fiddled with the napkin on the table. “I only have a month left of my first year, but damn, it’s killer.”
“I get that,” he told me.
“Did you go to college?”
“Of sorts.” He didn’t expand. Instead, he leaned forward. “What about the kid you’re tutoring?”
A smile spread over my face at the thought of Cade. He’d made leaps and bounds since we first started, and there was no way you could miss the confidence he had in his work now. He rarely needed me to prompt him, but when he asked, I was always there to guide him. It was something I’d never thought I’d be good at but came naturally.
“I can tell from that smile that it’s going good.”
I flicked my gaze over Brody’s face, taking in the stubble lining his jaw, the slight crook in his nose, and the lashes framing his dark-brown eyes. “Yeah. This kid, he’s just...he’s doing so well. His work has improved, and his mom messaged me earlier to tell me what he got on his last report card. He’s gone from Ds up to Bs.”
Fallen Duet: Brody & Lola: Free Fall & Down Fall (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 1) Page 17